Browsing for a bargain Buyers can find value when looking to purchase an existing home

Wednesday

Jun 17, 2009 at 5:07 AM

By GINGER CHRIST T-G Staff Writer Chad and Brittany Johnson spent a little more time fixing up their house than they intended. But the price — and the house — were worth it. The Johnsons, newly married July 12, 2008, spent two months fixing up their home in Cinnamon Lake before moving in Memorial Day weekend. They purchased the house as a foreclosure and for far less than its market price. “We bid on it the first day,” Chad Johnson said. “For the price, we didn’t want to lose it. There was so much potential and hopefully equity.” The Johnsons are not alone in their frugal home-buying efforts. Both the Johnsons and another couple, Dennis and Joy Brinker of Ashland, recently were able to purchase homes worth upward of $100,000 for prices close to half their value. Such a trend in the declining price of existing home sales is evident across the Midwest and the country, according to a report bythe National Association of Realtors. In April, the sale price of existing homes in the Midwest was down 11.7 percent from the same time last year. The sale price across the U.S. was down 15.4 percent from April 2008. “Most of the sales are taking place in lower price ranges and activity is beginning to pick up in the midprice ranges, but high-end home sales remain sluggish,” Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said in a news release. Local Realtor Rob Ward of Coldwell Banker Ward Real Estate agreed sales of lower-priced homes have been the most common.“The properties from about $200,000 and below are the ones that are selling pretty well right now,” Ward said. “Anything above $200,000 is still a little spotty. It’s really a pretty good market. We’re pretty busy.” The two-month window the Johnsons had to work on their home before their rental lease expired was filled with painting, mowing, weeding and installing new carpet. They had to repaint their living room ceiling five times to rid it of smoke stains from the previous owner. But that was after they repaired the roof. The home, which has a view of the lake, had weathered high winds that left shingles strewn about the yard and a leak in the roof. “That’s the first thing we did,” Brittany Johnson said. “We were picking up shingles in the snow.” The Johnsons were mired in the housing search for six months and went through four real estate agents before finding a winner. Chad Johnson, 24, works at Fastenahl in Massillon, and Brittany Johnson, 22, works as a preschool teacher in Mansfield. The couple initially hoped to find a home in Wooster or Loudonville. Instead, they purchased the three-bedroom, two-bath, 1,848-square-foot house near West Salem. “For the deal we got on the house, we couldn’t pass it up,” Chad Johnson said. “Based on the other houses we looked at, you can’t imagine us being anywhere else,” Brittany Johnson said. “I can see us here for a long time.”The Johnsons both graduated from the University of Akron last year. “It’s nice to know that we’re buying something that is ours now and not just renting,” Brittany Johnson said. And, thanks to the favorable market, Dennis and Joy Brinker were able to become homeowners once again. Until March, they hadn’t owned a home since the 1990s. “It means a lot for us purchasing this home,” Dennis Brinker said. The middle-aged couple bought their home in the city in March for about half of its market value. The three-bedroom, 1,688-square-foot ranch home has 11⁄2 bathrooms and a finished basement. Although the home sat empty for a year, the Brinkers had to make few improvements on the house, just “a few minor repairs because it sat for a year,” Dennis Brinker said.“It was in really good shape,” he said. The home had new windows and new siding and was an opportunity for the Brinkers to move out of their rented home and into one they could call their own. Dennis Brinker works for the city of Ashland and his wife is a homemaker. n Ginger Christ can be reached at 419-281-0581, ext. 239, or at gchrist@times-gazette.com.

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